Posts Tagged ‘hopes of the states’

We arrived in town a little early in our excitement, and so had time for a quick drink in the nice swanky bar next door to the venue. In there, amongst other eager folk fans, was a cute black cat – should have known then our luck was in!

The doors didn’t open til around 8.30pm, but it was well worth the wait. Both bands put on a really intimate gig, which is admittedly unavoidable in the Little Civic which is very true to it’s name. To a small but packed out room, literally wallpapered in tour promo posters ranging from Steps to The Verve, the support act Sons of Noel and Adrian began their set.

Just moments prior to this, my friend alerted me to the fact Mike Siddell the band’s violinist, is a former member of Hopes of the States and currently in Lightspeed Champion AND he had just walked passed us! But I had missed him..typical

N.B. if you ever attend a gig at the Little Civic, postion yourself beside the door on the left hand-side of the stage. That is the door to the bands dressing room from which they inevitably have to walk from to get to the stage!! Or you can get extremely up close and personal on the front row. In fact, you could stand anywhere and just keep your eyes open and feel the closeness..

Anyway, Sons of Noel and Adrian are amazing and unlike some other support acts I certainly didn’t want them to hurry up and finish. Even Mumford played tribute to them and said how nice it was to be touring with a band they truely admired. They also have impressive whistling skills and I found frontman Jacob Richardson’s fragile voice reminiscent to that of another one of my acoustic favourites, Damien Rice.

Sons of Noel and Adrian

Tom Cowen (son of Adrian) and Jacob Richardson (son of Noel)

After already receiving more than our monies worth, Mumford and Sons finally took stage at 10pm apologising for being late, and blew everyone away.

Mumford began with his guitar followed by Winston on the banjo, Lovett on keys and Dwayne on double bass. Further into the song, Mumford starts on the kick drum, the atmosphere intensifies and the crowd are loving it.

Between songs, Mumford comments on how the hole in the top of his drum shoots air up in his face every time he kicks it acting as, “sporadic air-con” which he rather enjoyed – it had got very hot in there! But despite the heat, the four young men gave it their all and we were not left dissapointed. The energy on stage was amazing, particularly Lovett’s head banging over the keys to the fast beats.

Mumford talked about how the band were enjoying touring the smaller cities of the UK such as Wolverhampton and seeing new places. However he also mentioned a gig that will take place in Birmingham later this year in April sometime – so watch out for that!

Before leaving the stage for the last time, Lovett thanked the crowd and there was a roaring applause until they dissapeared back into the dressing room.